A year ago, North Dakota contractor Fisher Sand & Gravel Co. was resorting to personal pitches to President Donald Trump, tours of its privately funded border wall projects, and the federal courts, to gain entry to the massive federal wall construction program along the U.S.-Mexico border.

The combined effort propelled the firm headlong into the federal arena, with a $400-million wall construction award last December from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, for 31 miles of border barrier in Arizona, as one of 11 contractors pre-approved to bid for up to $5 billion of budgeted work segments.